(Pardon the Google translation. The link to the Russian original can be found at the bottom of the post.)

• RANGE OF ESTABLISHED NAMES: -Zorats car (Goshun-Dash). The name "Zorats car" is a translation of the Turkish name of the monument - «Koşun taş», made and entered into circulation in 1970. The authors found that the word «Koşun» in Turkish translates as "number", "order". Thus, it is more accurately translated as the Turkish name "Shark Car" (Stones in the series), which corresponds to the structure of the monument.

-Karahunge. This name was introduced into the trafficking AP Herouni in the mid 1990's. Based on the mention of the monument near the Art. Orbelian (in the 13 th century) the names of villages "Karundzh. Another argument is based on reading the words "Karahunge" as "Karahunj" in what is viewed desire to give the name of building functionality that is not enough substantiated.

-Zietz Karer and Dick Dick Karer (Ցից քարեր and Դիք - դիք քարեր). Both names translate as Protruding stones. Common names taken from the nearby villages. They reflect a structural feature of the monument.

-Angha Karahunge (Griffin Karahunge). Apparently, the Turkish expression "Goshun-Dash" was translated from Armenian. Armenian expression might sound like say, "Shark Karer" (stones in a row) or something like that. Then the translation would sound "goshun Rocks, not" das goshun. In order for the word "stone" in Turkish, translated from the ancient Armenian name expressed in the singular, it was necessary that the word "Kar" (stone) in the Armenian name was also presented in the singular. For example, "car-a-Shark" (a stone series). In this case, is likely to Turkish translation would sound exactly like "Goshun das. It turned out, however, that the Turkish word "goshun in some Armenian dialects also used in the meaning of" group ". It turns out that the initial version of the Armenian name of the monument could be "Karahumb" (a group of stones), or close within the meaning of "Karapundzh" (a bunch of stones), which is in the Syunik dialect sounds like "Karahunge. Thus, the ancient original (doturetskoe) Armenian name of the monument is likely to sound like "Karahunge. It was translated into Turkish as "Goshun das" and came to us and Turkish. In the 13 th century witnessed a village near the monument with the name "Karahunge. Today, in Armenia - in Syunik and Karabakh, there are three villages with the same title Karahunge. Nearby, at least two of them testified megalithic structures. Thus, Karahunge word, meaning "stone flower", the Armenians, apparently in antiquity were called circular megalithic structures. That's their name nearby village called Karahunge. Means "Karahunge" not a proper name and common name - the generalized name of such buildings.

The proper name of building - the subject of this study could be "Angha Karahunge" (Griffin Karahunge), since it reflects the constellation Cygnus (ancient Sumerian and whose name - Constellation neck) on Earth, and probably their ritual and religious function was devoted to the cults of the neck symbolizing the death and eggs, symbolizing life.

• Structural and functional features.

-The overall structure of the monument reflects the constellation Cygnus (neck) (see Fig. 1). Stones, corresponding to the stars of Cygnus, the neck, placed on pedestals and mobile. All the other stones buried in the ground.

-The overall structure of the monument is that suggests its astronomical significance, namely:

-Determine the summer solstice. This is evidenced by a corridor, opening from the central oval layout of the monument and to the north-east. According to calculations by Academician Herouni, about 7500 years ago at the summer solstice the sun rose in this corridor. Today the point of sunrise rejected because of the precession of the Earth.

-Tracking the movement of stars. On some rocks are made through holes, some of which look at certain points in the sky, along with other vertex adjacent stones form a system of sight (see Fig. 12). This clearly gives a reason to assume that when some light appears at the top of this stone, it becomes the basis for certain conclusions vremenny'h.

-It is also possible sale and other functions of ritual and religious significance. None of the stones of the central oval layout of the holes there. This suggests a ritual and religious use layout. The authors suggest the existence of the cult of the neck and eggs.

• Geographic features

-Geography construction so correlated with the shrine, the cemetery of the village Angehakot, the old church of the village / villages Brune Verishen (on the former site of a pagan temple) and the ritual place called Portakar "that this series on Earth reflects the main - the vertical line of stars is Cross constellation Cygnus-Vulture (see Fig. 2).

-This constellation is also reflected in the names of these terrestrial areas. Thus, name of the village Angehakot means "Griffin big" and corresponds to the brightest star in the constellation Vulture (Cygnus) - Deneb.

-Village Brun corresponds to β Cygni - star Albireo. Despite the Arabic sound of the word, its root - Bireh, is not explained in Arabic. Relevance to the face - Al-Bir-eo. Particle-eo is clearly a suffix.

-The central star is called Sadr corresponds to the monument. Word of Sadr Arabic for breast part bird - the body. This applies to the construction of the oval in the center of the monument, which reflects the cult of eggs in the past. The latter also shows an image fingerboard, presented in at the other end of the Armenian highlands shrine Portasar (better known under the name oturechennym "Gebekli Tepe"), where the center of the image engraved on the egg (see Fig. 3).

-With regard to compliance with the ritual place called "Portakar and η Cygni, at first glance it is purely structural in nature (see Fig. 4).

-If the card connected by straight lines having a semantic link four villages - Angehakot, Brun, Karahunge and Brnakot, you get an almost regular parallelogram. The monument is located on its large diagonal, dividing it into parts votnoshenii ¼ to ¾ (see Fig. 5).

• Relationship to other megalithic structures

-Stonehenge (United Kingdom). This famous buildings near the city of Salisbury in the south-west England, has some relevance to our Syunik monument.

-Absolute coincidence of names. In the words «Stonehenge» and «Քարահունջ» («Kara (h) undzh"), the first roots have the same meaning - "stone." To explain the second root - «henge», British scientists have put forward two versions:

o Hedge - fence

o Hang - hanging, swinging.

Both options are clearly not sufficiently convincing. The second root - «(h) undzh" in the word Karahunge explained Syunik adverb and means "flower", "beam". The word "bouquet" was translated into English as «bunch». Consider it possible that the words «bunch» and «henge» relate to each other just like the word «(h) undzh" and "Punj and have a common origin.

-Common structural and functional elements. Both buildings are stacked stones corridors to the north-east and in ancient times made it possible to determine the summer solstice. This proves that the creators of both structures have the same knowledge and understanding of astronomy and is a carrier of the same culture (Fig. 6)..

-Portasar (Western Armenia), better known under the name oturechennym "Gebekli Tepe.

-On some stones of the monument depicts a different animal. One of the stones is particularly rich in images (see Fig. 8a). Dedicated to the circle element explicitly - image of the neck. It is easy to see that the wingspan neck asymmetric. If we impose on him a silhouette "Griffin Karahunge", then they are exactly coincide (see Fig. 8b). According to the authors on this stone shows the starry sky - divided into constellations. Intuitively, this can be seen by comparing the sky map with the image on the stone (see Figure 9).. Thus, we arrive to an important conclusion. The authors of these two facilities were supported by the same culture.

-Close to facilities certified Portasara village called Brnashen, which is identical to the names of villages and Brun Brnakot located near the Syunik structure.

• Other Armenian-British similarities.

-Historiographical information about the common roots. In the ancient chronicles of England - Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says: "The first inhabitants of the island [Britain] had been shaved, who came from Armenia" (see Fig. 10).Writing about the British researchers followed the hypothesis first translator of the Chronicle, which have des Bede Venerable instead of the word "Armenia" was to be written "Armorica" what has changed as a result of random error of a medieval scribe. The authors failed to show that the probability of error is negligible. For this presented a lot of multilateral arguments:o Psychologically, the probability of a mistake is very small, since the copyist instead of "Armorica" could mistakenly write "Armenia" if the latter (note the title is very far from England, the country) was more than upotrebimo, "Armorica" - Celtic name of Brittany - the nearest to England region neighboring France. o The manuscript is written kaligraficheski. This means that each word letter by letter loomed. Therefore, the probability of random error is reduced even more.o Geographical preface (where it is said about it) is present, at least in two different books of "Chronicles" written by different authors in different places and at different times. The probability that at the same place, same error allowed a few people, reduced to a negligible value.

-Etymology of the word "Brit". Since the word «brit» clearly has Indo-European origin, it must be regarded as consisting of two parts - the Indo-European root "br" and the suffix "-um" belonging to the same linguistic family.Let's start with a well-known. Suffix "-um" and "-id" show affiliation to the root, the origin of the root word-concepts. For example, a "Semite" (belonging to the genus Sema), or a druid (belonging to the genus ", etc). Conclusion: the word "Brit" means belonging to the genus "br". In Armenian roots, "br" can be found in the verb "walked". By Acharyanu verb "walked" in ancient language has several meanings. Including - "carving, engrave", ie write a cutting tool on a hard surface. Thus, the notion of "writing" in the Armenian language of the second millennium BC (When the emigration of Britons thought to occur) sounded like "walked". We assume that the word "Brit" and "walked" are one and the same root as "br". Thus, we propose a version according to which the word "Brit" means "belonging to a tribe who can write."

In our opinion the same meaning ("who knows how to write") is the name of the village Brun, since it consists of a root "br" and the suffix "-un", which is very old and means the ability to perform the action indicated by the root. For example, "kpchel" (stick) - kpchun "(sticky)," trchel "(to fly) - trchun (bird flying)," walked "(write) -" Bruno "(writer). In addition, we note that this part of the Syunik subethnos has the nickname "Grohner" "writing", ie people who can write.

-Genetic data on common descent. British geneticists together with Armenian specialists carried out a study whose results were published in the most popular in this area of the journal Human Genetics. These results indicate that the genes of the Armenian population of Armenia in the male line - haplogroups are very close haplogroup population British Isles, and from vnutriterritorialnyh haplogroups, closest to the British are the Karabakh and Syunik haplogroups (see Figure 11).

\We know that agriculture was invented in Armenia, wheat/ցորեն (bread) and barley գարի/ գարեջուր (beer) cultivation as attested by third parties, the likes of Xenophon. And how and when it was introduced to Europe. Of course, many sources who may not have heard the word Armenia will attribute it to Mesopotamia, Assyria , Syria and Egypt.Speaking of horses, did the Europeans learn the word cow from the Armenian կով/kov/kow?Below an article from Azdak;http://www.aztagdail...?ID=42246&num=1

Beside agriculture and horticulture animal husbandry was also invented in Armenia. We know that horse breeding was developed in Armenia. Why is this beautiful species called an Arabian Horse? Where did they learn to breed horses?

The roots of farming began in the areas of present day Turkey and the Middle East about 10,000 years ago. Two of the earliest settlements are known as Catal Hüyük and Jericho. Catal Hüyük had, by 6000 B.C., more then 1000 houses. It is at this place that we have discovered evidence of…

Kikkuli, "master horse trainer (assussanni, virtually Sanskrit aśva-sana-) of the land Mitanni" (LÚA-AŠ-ŠU-UŠ-ŠA-AN-NI ŠA KUR URUMI-IT-TA-AN-NI) was the author of a chariot horse training text written in the Hittite language, dating to the Hittite New Kingdom (around 1400 BC). The text is notable both for the information it provides about the development of Indo-European languages and for its content.

Surviving texts

CTH 284, best preserved, Late Hittite copy (13th century BC)CTH 285, contemporary Middle Hittite copy with a ritual introductionCTH 286, contemporary Middle Hittite copyCTH 284 consists of four well preserved tablets or a total of 1080 lines. The text is notable for its Mitanni (Indo-Aryan) loanwords, e.g. the numeral compounds aiga-, tera-, panza-, satta-, nāwa-wartanna ("one, three, five, seven, nine intervals", virtually Sanskrit eka-, tri-, pañca- sapta-, nava-vartana. Kikkuli apparently was faced with some difficulty getting specific Mitannian concepts across in the Hittite language, for he frequently gives a term such as “Intervals” in his own language (somewhat similar to Vedic Sanskrit), and then states, “this means…” and explained it in Hittite.

The Kikkuli Text addresses solely the conditioning, not education, of the horse. The Mitannians were acknowledged leaders in horse training and as a result of the horse training techniques learned from Kikkuli, Hittite charioteers forged an empire of the area which is now Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Northern Iraq. Surprisingly, the regime used 'interval training' techniques similar to those used so successfully by Three Day Eventers, Endurance riders and others today and whose principles have only been studied by equine sports medicine researchers in the past 30 years. The Kikkuli programme involved "sports medicine" techniques comparable to modern ideas such as the principle of progression, peak loading systems, electrolyte replacement theory, fartlek training, intervals and repetitions. It was directed at horses with a high proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibres.

As in modern conventional (as opposed to 'interval') training, the Kikkuli horses were stabled, rugged, washed down with warm water and fed oats, barley and hay at least three times per day. Unlike conventional horse training, the horses were subject to warming down periods. Further, every example of cantering included intermediate pauses to relax the horse partially and as the training advanced the workouts include intervals at the canter. This is on the same level as the Interval training we use in modern times. However, Kikkuli made much use of long periods leading the horses at the trotting and cantering gaits rather than harnessing them to a chariot.

Between 1991-1992, Dr A. Nyland, then of the University of New England, Australia, carried out the experimental replication of the entire Kikkuli Text over the 7 month period prescribed in the Text with Arabian horses.

WASHINGTON — The earliest known winery, approximately 6,000 years old according to researchers, has been uncovered in a cave in the mountains of Armenia.

A vat to press the grapes, fermentation jars and even a cup and drinking bowl dating to about 6,000 years ago were discovered in the cave complex by an international team of researchers.While older evidence of wine drinking has been found, this is the earliest example of complete wine production, according to Gregory Areshian of the University of California, Los Angeles, co-director of the excavation.

The findings, announced Tuesday by the National Geographic Society, are published in the online edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.“The evidence argues convincingly for a wine-making facility,” said Patrick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, who was not part of the research team.

Such large scale wine production implies that the Eurasian grape had already been domesticated, said McGovern, author of “Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages.”The same Armenian area was the site of the discovery of the oldest known leather shoe, dated about 5,500 years ago. That discovery at the area known as Areni-1 was reported last summer.According to the archeologists, inside the cave was a shallow basin about 3-feet across that was positioned to drain into a deep vat.

The basin could have served as a wine press where people stomped the grapes with their feet, a method Areshian noted was traditional for centuries.They also found grape seeds, remains of pressed grapes and dozens of dried vines. The seeds were from the same type of grapes — Vitis vinifera vinifera — still used to make wine.

The earliest comparable remains were found in the tomb of the ancient Egyptian king Scorpion I, dating to around 5,100 years ago.Because the wine-making facility was found surrounded by graves, the researchers suggest the wine may have been intended for ceremonial use.That made sense to McGovern, who noted that wine was the main beverage at funeral feasts and later used for tomb offerings.

Indeed, he said: “Even in lowland regions like ancient Egypt where beer reigned supreme, special wines from the Nile Delta were required as funerary offerings and huge quantities of wine were consumed at major royal and religious festivals.”

McGovern noted that similar vats for treading on grapes and jars for storage have been found around the Mediterranean area.

In his books, McGovern has suggested that a “wine culture,” including the domestication of the Eurasian grape, was first consolidated in the mountainous regions around Armenia before moving to the south.

As if making the oldest known leather shoe wasn't enough, a prehistoric people in what's now Armenia also built the world's oldest known winery, a new study says.

Undertaken at a burial site, their winemaking may have been dedicated to the dead—and it likely required the removal of any fancy footwear.

Near the village of Areni, in the same cave where a stunningly preserved, 5,500-year-old leather moccasin was recently found, archaeologists have unearthed a wine press for stomping grapes, fermentation and storage vessels, drinking cups, and withered grape vines, skins, and seeds, the study says.

"This is the earliest, most reliable evidence of wine production," said archaeologist Gregory Areshian of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The prehistoric winemaking equipment was first detected in 2007, when excavations co-directed by Areshian and Armenian archaeologist Boris Gasparyan began at the Areni-1 cave complex.

In September 2010 archaeologists completed excavations of a large, 2-foot-deep (60-centimeter-deep) vat buried next to a shallow, 3.5-foot-long (1-meter-long) basin made of hard-packed clay with elevated edges.

The installation suggests the Copper Age vintners pressed their wine the old-fashioned way, using their feet, Areshian said.

Juice from the trampled grapes drained into the vat, where it was left to ferment, he explained.

The wine was then stored in jars—the cool, dry conditions of the cave would have made a perfect wine cellar, according to Areshian, who co-authored the new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

To test whether the vat and jars in the Armenian cave had held wine, the team chemically analyzed pottery shards—which had been radiocarbon-dated to between 4100 B.C. and 4000 B.C.—for telltale residues.

"Malvidin is the best chemical indicator of the presence of wine we know of so far," Areshian said.

Ancient-wine expert Patrick E. McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, agrees the evidence argues convincingly for a winemaking facility.

One thing that would make the claim a bit stronger, though, said McGovern, who wasn't involved in the study, is the presence of tartaric acid, another chemical indicator of grapes. Malvidin, he said, might have come from other local fruits, such as pomegranates.

Combined with the malvidin and radiocarbon evidence, traces of tartaric acid "would then substantiate that the facility is the earliest yet found," he said.

"Later, we know that small treading vats for stomping out the grapes and running the juice into underground jars are used all over the Near East and throughout the Mediterranean," he added.

(Related: "Ancient Christian 'Holy Wine' Factory Found in Egypt.")

Winery Discovery Backed Up by DNA?

McGovern called the discovery "important and unique, because it indicates large-scale wine production, which would imply, I think, that the grape had already been domesticated."

As domesticated vines yield much more fruit than wild varieties, larger facilities would have been needed to process the grapes.

McGovern has uncovered chemical and archaeological evidence of wine, but not of a winery, in northern Iran dating back some 7,000 years—around a thousand years earlier than the new find.

But the apparent discovery that winemaking using domesticated grapevines emerged in what's now Armenia appears to dovetail with previous DNA studies of cultivated grape varieties, McGovern said. Those studies had pointed to the mountains of Armenia, Georgia, and neighboring countries as the birthplace of viticulture.

McGovern—whose book Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages traces the origins of wine—said the Areni grape perhaps produced a taste similar to that of ancient Georgian varieties that appear to be ancestors of the Pinot Noir grape, which results in a dry red.

To preserve the wine, however, tree resin would probably have been added, he speculated, so the end result may actually have been more like a Greek retsina, which is still made with tree resin.

While the identities of the ancient, moccasin-clad wine quaffers remain a mystery, their drinking culture likely involved ceremonies in honor of the dead, UCLA's Areshian believes.

"Twenty burials have been identified around the wine-pressing installation. There was a cemetery, and the wine production in the cave was related to this ritualistic aspect," Areshian speculated.

Significantly, drinking cups have been found inside and around the graves.

McGovern, the ancient-wine expert, said later examples of ancient alcohol-related funerary rituals have been found throughout the world.

In ancient Egypt, for example, "you have illustrations inside the tombs showing how many jars of beer and wine from the Nile Delta are to be provided to the dead," McGovern said. (Also see "Scorpion King's Wines—Egypt's Oldest—Spiked With Meds.")

"I guess a cave is secluded, so it's good for a cemetery, but it's also good for making wine," he added. "And then you have the wine right there, so you can keep the ancestors happy."

Future work planned at Areni will further investigate links between the burials and winemaking, study leader Areshian said.

Winemaking as Revolution

The discovery is important, the study team says, because winemaking is seen as a significant social and technological innovation among prehistoric societies.

"They had to learn and understand the cycles of growth of the plant," he said. "They had to understand how much water was needed, how to prevent fungi from damaging the harvest, and how to deal with flies that live on the grapes.

"The site gives us a new insight into the earliest phase of horticulture—how they grew the first orchards and vineyards," he added.

University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Naomi Miller commented that "from a nutritional and culinary perspective, wine expands the food supply by harnessing the otherwise sour and unpalatable wild grape.

"From a social perspective, for good and ill," Miller said, "alcoholic beverages change the way we interact with each other in society."

****The ancient-winery study was led by UCLA's Hans Barnard and partially funded by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)

Scientists discover 'oldest' winery in Armenian caveBy Brian Walker, CNNc/div> i/div>v STORY HIGHLIGHTS Clay pots and vats found at a sprawling cave system in southern Armenia The find shows an organized effort to press and distill grapes about 6,000 years ago 'It's the oldest proven case of documented and dedicated wine production,' scientist says The roof of the cave collapsed long ago, sealing in the rudimentary winerydiv> RELATED TOPICS a href="http://topics.editio...pics/Wine">Winea href="http://topics.editio...rmenia">Armeniaa href="http://topics.editio...gy">Archaeology----(CNN) -- Forget France. It turns out, the real birthplace of wine may be in a cave in Armenia.An international research team says it has found the world's oldest winery in a paper published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Archaeological Science."It's the oldest proven case of documented and dedicated wine production, stretching back the horizons of this important development by thousands of years," said Gregory Areshian, co-director of the excavation and assistant director of the University of California Los Angeles's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.Areshian says that clay pots and vats discovered at a sprawling cave system in southern Armenia near the border with Iran shows signs of an organized effort to press and distill grapes during the Copper Age, about 6,000 years ago.The roof of the cave had collapsed long ago, sealing in the rudimentary winery and preserving the remnants under an airtight layer of rock and other debris, leading to the remarkable find.The team, led by Hans Barnard from UCLA, found a simple wine press, vats with residue, remnants of grape vines and seeds, and a small cup that might have been used to sample the goods.The press and wide shallow vat are similar to foot-stomping type equipment used by people throughout the region even up into the 19th century.The wine might have tasted similar to modern vintages as well. Botanists examining the find say it was the species Vitis vinifera, the same one used to produce the vast majority of wine today.Areshian says the wine would be comparable to a modern unfiltered red wine, and may have had a similar taste to a merlot. He says that he would like to make a recreation of the whole press and assembly to make wine using local heritage grape varietals, just to sample it and see what challenges the Bronze-age vintners may have faced.Before this find, Areshian says, the oldest known winery was in Israel, and dated to 1650 BC.The find is an important link in the development of wine culture throughout the region, says Dr. Patrick McGovern, a senior research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.It fits with the first evidence of grape domestication a thousand years earlier, and the later widespread wine distribution and consumption across the Caucasus and Mediterranean."99% of the wine we drink today stems from that earliest grapevine domestication event that now seems clearly to have taken place in that region," says McGovern, author of Uncorking the Past, a history of ancient wine-making.Not much is known about the people who distilled and drank the wine. But the studies authors say it's clear that it was probably meant for ceremonial purposes, and not for getting drunk on.Areshian said that recent excavation at the cave has shown that it was once an important cemetery site, and that the production of wine indicated a complex belief system in which the drink was probably incorporated into funeral ceremonies.Still, McGovern says, growing grains and fruits for producing and drinking alcohol is an important spark that led to trade and development of agriculture in many different cultures."This find shows that there was a high degree of agriculture and horticultural skill even back in 4,000 BC," says Areshian. "Producing this wine would have been high technology of the time incorporating detailed knowledge of watering cycles, pruning the vines, how to deal with pests and the fermentation process itself, which is more complex than brewing beer."

LABORATORIES IN THE USA AND BRITAIN TO DETERMINE THE AGE OF THE MUMMIFIED GOAT DISCOVERED IN ARENI-1 CAVE IN ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2011-01-11 17:12:00

ArmInfo. Laboratories in the USA and Britain will determine the age
of the mummified goat discovered in Areni-1 cave in Armenia.

Pavel Avetisyan, Director of the Archaeology and Ethnography Institute
at the Armenian National Academy of Science, told ArmInfo the fragments
of the mummy have been already sent for analysis. He said that the
analysis result will make it possible for scientists to trace back
the stages of the goat's domestication and the agriculture of ancient
inhabitants.

"It is interesting that the goat was subjected to natural mummification
thanks to the special microclimate in the cave, which gives us an
exclusive opportunity to carry out a thorough analysis," Avetisyan
said.

The mummified goat was discovered in 2010. By one of the hypothesis,
the goat was sacrificial. Specialists say that mummy dates from the
late 5th millennium and early 4th millennium BC. Thus, the mummy may
prove even older than the ancient Egyptian mummies - by 1000-1200
years. The final results will be made public only after radiocarbon
analysis.

5900 year old skirt in Areni.With the above “5000 year old leather shoe” we are slowly but surely creating a whole complete wardrobe. We began from the bottom up, will it next be a shirt/jacket/chukha and eventually a hat? Was that cave in Areni a clothing store of sorts, a haberdashery? -----http://news.am/pic/news/73915.jpg

September 13, 2011 | 11:39 YEREVAN. – Excavations at Areni 1 Cave in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor region unearthed a more-than-5,900-year-old women’s straw-woven skirt, Armenian Archaeology and Ethnography Institute Director Pavel Avetisyan told Armenian News-News.am. Avetisyan informed that this artifact was discovered in 2010 and, even though they had informed about this precious item at the time, interest toward it grew further only recently. “The women’s clothing dates back to 39th century BC. So far we have discovered the skirt’s parts, which were superbly preserved. It is an amazing material with rhythmic color hues, and other remnants of the straw-woven material were also discovered. Such thing is recorded in Armenia for the first time,” Avetisyan noted. According to Archaeology and Ethnography Institute’s director, the artifact is currently under their care, but it will soon be sent to the restorer who, until the arrival of French specialists, will work on its restoration. Pavel Avetisyan added that, after the final conservation process, the skirt will be exhibited at the History Museum of Armenia.Areni 1 is the same cave where the world’s oldest leather shoe (more than 5,500 years old), wine-press, as well as flaggy items and part of a mummified goat’s body were discovered

Shengavit preserve offers glimpse to Armenia's pre-history by Joseph Dagdigian Published: Tuesday November 15, 2011 Archeological excavation with the U.S. embassy to Armenia in background. Yerevan - The foundation of Yerevan is often cited as 782 B.C., the year the Urartuan fortress of Erebuni was founded by Argishti I on a hill within the borders of the modern city of Yerevan. While Yerevan may be considered the direct descendant of Erebuni, mankind has lived there for many thousands of years before King Argishti I built his city.Visitors arriving at Yerevan's Zvartnots airport pass the U.S. Embassy on the way to Yerevan's center. In back of the embassy is a small, man made lake. Rising above the lake's opposite shore is the Shengavit Historical and Archeological Culture Preserve. Within the preserve are excavations revealing settlements from the end of the fourth to the beginning of the second millennium B.C., as well as a small museum containing artifacts found at the site. The neatly arranged artifacts are labeled in English, Armenian, and Russian. The actual archeological site spans an area of six hectares (about 15 acres). During the Soviet era a hospital was built over part of the site destroying forever the yet unexamined archeological evidence underneath.

The Shengavit archeological record contains four layers, each about four meters (12 feet) in depth representing distinct phases of habitation. The lowest and oldest layer contains the archeological record of inhabitants living around 4000 - 3000 B.C., while the uppermost, most recent layer is dated to about 2000 B.C. Scholars believe the site was continually inhabited for over 2000 years. Found within the oldest stone age layer were crude stone tools and other items, while the upper layer revealed sophisticated pottery, the presence of agricultural activity, cattle raising, and copper tools as well as stone molds used to cast copper implements. Buildings were constructed of unbaked clay bricks set upon stone foundations with connected circular and rectangular rooms. The inside walls of the rooms were plastered. There was evidence that the walls were painted, though that evidence no longer exists. Within the rooms were found triangular hearths set upon stands. The circular rooms contained centrally located stone pedestals upon which columns rested to support the roof. Floors were made of pebbles covered with clay.

The Shengavit culture was spread throughout the Ararat valley and was influential as far as western Armenia, Cilicia, northern Mesopotamia, and Palestine. Obsidian tools from Armenia were found in the Middle East. Anthropologists, analyzing human remains from Shengavit tombs, believe the "Armenoid" skull type typical of current day Armenians evolved in this region. Shengavit was linked to other settlements in the region, all of which demonstrated a similar culture and were connected by trade. While there is no record of the language used at the time, scientists believe that a non-Semitic, non-Indo-European language or family of languages was prevalent, traces of which remain today within the Armenian language.

While it can not be stated that the early residents of Shengavit were "Armenian", as the Armenian nation, people, and language may not have been formed at that time, it is likely that the tribes living in the region ultimately coalesced to form the Armenian people and the Armenian language. At a much later time migrating tribes introduced Indo-European elements into the Armenian language.

Initial excavation of the site began in 1936 by Joseph Orbeli (1887-1961) and Eugeni Bayburtyan (1898-1938) and lasted two years; then the site was abandoned. Orbeli was the director of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Bayburtyan apparently was a bit too nationalistic; he was arrested by Stalin and was never seen again.From 1945-1950 Sandro Sardaryan (1912-1995) studied the site and then, from 1950-1983, led a new excavation of Shengavit. Yuli Tamanyan, being an architect and member of the excavating team, performed the site's measurements. He was the son of famed architect Alexander Tamanian who, in 1925, developed the general layout of Yerevan. In 1967 Sardaryan published a study "Primitive Society in Armenia" in English describing Shengavit and other ancient settlements within the Armenian highlands.Underfunded and derelictCurrently on the Shengavit preserve one may view the foundations of ancient dwellings and visit Shengavit's nicely arranged museum. The director of the "Shengavit Historical and Archaeological Culture Preserve" is Vladimir Tshagharyan, an experienced archeologist and architect with considerable experience in managing and preserving Armenia's large number of historical and archaeological sites. He is assisted by Vano, an experienced construction worker, and Gayane - a guide who is fluent in Armenian, English, Russian, and perhaps a few other languages.The 3-person staff is severely underpaid, receiving salaries that are impossible to live on in Armenia. They are, in effect, volunteers as their motivations are the preservation of Armenia's important historical and archaeological record. In addition to inadequate pay, there is no budget for the maintenance and renovation of the site. The site desperately needs to install running water (there is no water at the site), a sewage line (there is none), rest rooms, and a phone line (there is none). They need a dozen or so boards to repair the benches. The museum building dates from 1920 when it was constructed to serve as a station for Red Army officers. The roof needs repair and the museum walls need reinforcement in order to support the used air conditioners which were donated to the museum.

My wife and I spent a day visiting building supply stores where we bought enough material to start the most critical repairs before the arrival of winter weather. The staff does all the repair and maintenance work, including digging trenches for a sewer line and for a water connection. Part of the preserve was illegally sold to a private individual. The director has gathered extensive documentation on this illegal sale and presented the evidence to Yerevan City Hall. He is assured that the matter will be rectified. If it is not, he says, he will go to court - though hiring a lawyer will require funds which he does not have. If it comes to this, and one hopes it won't, the Diaspora will need to help.

15:17 25/06/2013 » Society
Fossils of dinosaurs, flying lizards, elephants and three toe horses discovered in Armenia
Nowadays Armenia pays little attention to archeology, Hayk Melik-Adamyan, a research officer at the Institute of Geology of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, told reporters in Yerevan, adding that the management of the Institute of Geology pays more attention to seismology.
“The territory of Armenia and Artsakh is very interesting from the geological viewpoint. In fact, the 45,000 km of territory is a geological museum in the open air,” said the scientist.
Speaking of archeological excavations, Melik-Adamyan said that fossils of dinosaurs were discovered in the territory of Armenia lately. These were not big, wild dinosaurs dating back 88-83 million years.
According to the geologist, fossils of flying lizards were also discovered in excavations. These lizards were unique in the region. They date back 90 million years, were weighing 40-50 kg, were discovered in the territory of Vayk province of Armenia and the study in Saint Petersburg confirmed that they were flying lizards.
Elephant fossils were discovered in the territory of Armenia and Artsakh, the scientist said. In particular, elephant fossils were discovered in the 30-40s near Gyumri, and fossils of rare forest elephants were discovered near the village of Norabats.
Also, fossils of mammoths and three toe horses were discovered in Armenian excavations, Melik-Adamyan said

March 21, 2012 - 19:55 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Prime Minster called against charactering leaders of other parties to have jointed the electoral list of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia as &#147;political dinosaurs.&#148;&#147;Political actors receive various assessments by analysts, critics and opposition forces. And elections will help us realize whether these characterizations are true to fact or not,&#148; Tigran Sargsyan said.In this context, he recalled Karen Demirchyan&#146;s comeback to big politics, who was by then already commonly believed as an old Soviet functionary.

There ought to be a law!!! I wish we would go back to traditional orthography. See how they transliterated dinosaur to Armenian. DinoSAV@R ? If I didn&#146;t know what we are talking about, I would have never known what that word is. WA/bolis Armenins will read that word as Tinosav@r.http://www.panorama....h-m-adamyan/?sw

Lusine AvanesyanRadiolurStepanakertArchaeologists have found another Urartian trace in Artsakh. The artifacts found as a result of excavations in Karkar castle-city found two years ago between the cities of Shushi and Stepanakert with the sponsorship of the state, which testify to the links between the Kingdom of Van and the residents of Karkar.An evidence of links between Karkar and all of Artsakh with the Kingdom of Van is the ancient 1.5 km-long canal, which stretches from Shushi to Karkar and passes through the city. The traces of it have been preserved on the plateau, in the forest and the mountains.The artifacts found in Karkar refute the evidences of Arab sources that Karkar was founded by Khosrow Anushirvan King in the 6th century. The city has a more ancient history, which is proved by the items found during excavations.

All we need now is some crackpot linguist to tell us that the furkish is a dialect of the Urartuan, like the TOLI/ՏՈԼԻ turned to TOLMA/.ՏՈԼՄԱ.What else are those crackpot linguists will tell us? That yalanchi / liar is also from the Urartuan?

17:53, July 4, 2014Emil Bayrakhtaryan is one of the lucky residents of Gegharot village in Armenias Aragatzotn Province to have gotten a summer job as a digger at a local archeological site.Competition is fierce to get the jobs that pay 3,000 AMD (US$7.30) daily. The diggers work from 9am to 4pm.Emil and his fellow workers confess that it was the money that first attracted them but soon realized they were involved in covering bits and pieces of history dating back several millennia.Archeologicaldigs in the villages of Gegharot and Tzaghkahovit have been taking place since 1998 within the scope of the Armenian American Aragatz project. Rouben Badalyan, an employee at Armenias Institute of Archeology, supervises the digs.

There was a settlement on the top of this hill dating back to the early Bronze Age. The settlement was abandoned for some reason but people returned in the second millennium BCE. A cyclopean fortress was built atop the hill and a few holy shrines were constructed. There was anactive social life, Badalyan said.The team is focusing on the settlement, but they have already excavatedthe third burial mound none to twelve meters in diameter.The artifacts they dig up are handed over to Armenias Museum of History.Gegharot is located 2,060 meters above sea level, thus allowing for a mild chill even on the hottest of days. A sea of wild flowers stretches out like a blanket to the hill.

Archeologist Ermine Haroutyunyan has been working on the dig site since 2002.She points to the square shaped areas that resemble rooms which date back to the 4thmillennia BCE.Team leader Badalyan shows me a spot in the center of the rooms that looks like a burnt hearth.Its quite interesting; Id say it even has a dramatic history. It was burnt several times but has stayed in the same spot as 4-5 thousand years ago. The structures roof and walls collapsed, so they covered it and here we are four thousand years later excavating it. The artifacts have remained unmoved, Badalyan says.The site was also of strategic importance for copper was transported from Akhhtala and Alaverdi down to the Ararat Valley. From this hill they could monitor the metal trade.There is still no archeological site in Armenia that has been fully excavated, according to Badalyan. Over sixteen years, the team has succeeded to study 3,000 square meters at the Gegharot site. Just the settlement without the burial mounds covers six hectares. Badalyan considers this an achievement but only an insignificant portion of the overall site.

Studying the Bronze Age in Armenia and the southern Caucasus, we mostly stress the burial mounds. This is the first case where we have focused on the settlements that are sources of quite different information, Badalyan notes, adding that each bone uncovered is examined in detail to offer up secrets regarding the climatic conditions at the time and what type of animal husbandry was being conducted.Residents of Gegharot hope that all the time and effort being invested in the archeological dig will finally pay off and turn their community into a must see tourist destination in this part of Armenia.

=====** Pay special attention to the name of the village. Gegharot/Գեղարոօտ: Yes, I spelled it with letter 0, in the traditional orthography vs Vo, the new fangled soviet one.What does the name mean?Is it Gegh as in geghetsik/beautiful pasture or Gegh/ Giugh/Beautiful Village? In either case, the second part of the name arot means pasture/ arotavayr , and by association- summer resort, that some call yayla (furkish).Until 1945 the village was known as Keshishkent.Below it says it was renamed in 1935, the Hanragitaran says 1945.=============Until 1945 the village was known as Keshishkent.Below it says it was renamed in 1935, the Hanragitaran says 1945.http://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Գեղարոտ

====Why dont we have a native word for Bronze? The only synonym I can find is that artificial/compound word անագ-ա- պղինձ/anaga-pghindz, tin+copper.Here we see where it is said that the Armenina plindz/ Պղինձղ Is it saying that what we mean copper in fact meant Bronze? Is pghinz a variation of bronze? Or visa versa?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze